Gardening, cooking, eating well, saving money, having fun and generally exploring how to live better with less money and less stuff and less hours of work and less stress and whatever else come up! Comments can be posted here or emailed to pjc@dejazzd.com

Sunday, April 12, 2009

Paper Making (made with love)

When my dear friend wrote me with good news I felt inclined to send a gift. But for those who live a truly natural life with the Earth there is nothing I could send, even from an organic store, that would be right.

At the very least, I felt a card was in order. Yet, this friend is not the type who would appreciate a mass produced Hallmark card. So, I decided to make one in as Earth friendly a manner as I could find.

Making the card was simple, and fun. I first tore pieces f newspaper in small pieces, place them in a canning jar to soak (photo 1) up the water and turn mushy. I added some old organic garden seeds that were past their prime for texture. I closed the jar and let the mixture set over night.

The next day I poured the concoction into my blender, added a little water, and blended the wet paper and seed into a mushy pulp.

I then poured the pulp onto a screen (photo 2 -and that is a bird seed feeder, used temporarily as a paper making screen). Leaving the paper to strain on the screen, I went out to the garden.

There I selected 2 herbs, mint and lambs ear, both showing signs of life after a long winter.

Along with the new life theme (because we're celebrating a baby), lambs ear seemed and excellent choice, as it's so soft and fuzzy and can be used as a baby boo-boo band aid.

Anyway, I lined my little herb leaves up in no particular pattern on a cookie sheet (photo 3) then coated the herbs with a layer of paper mush (photo 4), flattening it with my bare hands, then set the paper in the sun to dry.

When dry, I gently peeled the paper from the cookie sheet. Though the backside of the paper was rough, the side with the herbs -that was flattened on the cookie sheet, was smooth as, well, a babies behind.

The card was made with time, love, recycled material and nature, and cost nothing. Yet, I imagine my friend will enjoy this handmade gift more than anything I could have found in a store.

I was so pleased with the results, I think I will make more in the future- for birthdays, gift tags, and maybe some as ornaments for our holiday tree (punch a hole, add some string and hang).